November 5th, 2019
5 Nov 2019 · page 941 of 1306
Fireworks.
Off to Thought Bubble this weekend! Come find me in the Ask For Mercy Hall, table 124! Yes, this might mean another late or skipped update this weekend, not sure yet. Apologies, been righting myself but con season kinda intruded.
Cast: Benjamin Thackerey, Eliza Swift
Comments (63)
Events

ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central






Oh my god they're both so proud of themselves for having this verbal spar. How dare someone interrupt their circle flirting.
Tis the intellectual match of WITS, Watch out, these two will either eventually fall head over heels for each other argue themselves into the ground.
Por que no los dos? :P
Sabio, desearía haber pensado en eso.
(thanks google translate)
So long as no one pulls out some Iocane powder...
Both.
To the ground then head over heels as they fall.
I'm already loving the dynamic these two have!
Gutted that Thought Bubble is this weekend though, every year I promise myself I'll go and it never seems to work out! Fingers crossed for next year!
Dude, yer harshin their vibe! In a couple more panels, they'da had their kit off, and been investigatin' one't'other.
Eliza, never beating around the bush.
But I am legit impressed by panel 4 Ben's answer. ...Actually, I feel like we should be asking ourselves, how much does Captain Barber in fact know? Does anyone even have the full picture of what happened?
I think all Barbers got to know about the battle with Lux in full because it explained what happened to Harry. And of course Captain Barber does know who is the witch, she discovered it first, actually! :)
The rest of it? I don't think anyone (including the main cast) has the full (absolutely, total full) picture of those events, and I don't think anyone really needs it. Beyond the brief "we weakened, desummoned and bound [the list of Deadlies]".
My guess is that everybody who was directly involved with the battle itself--Ben, Sid, Mal, Wolfe, and Verity--all know exactly what happened as well. They'll want to know what happened to Harry, and I doubt Mal would have kept that from Wolfe.
And now I really want to see Nicola, 'cause I can't imagine her simply waiting for Harry to come home.
About the battle with Lux, surely. (In fact my headcanon is the main cast and almost all Barbers heard that story at the same time. :))
What I mean by "I think noone has the full picture of the events" is a few little moments I doubt people'd want to tell others. Like, I doubt Wolfe told Mal how he got out of the mirror, or Ben told Mal about the details of breaking the main mirror, or Wolfe told anyone about the moment with Voss's "Maybe we just go away?"
I can imagine the circumstances of each separate case that can make them tell, but they are not "by default", and I doubt it happened in every one of them.
Right, I was thinking more in terms of "Just what has happened to Harry"? ...Think, can you even imagine how it was for Mal to explain the situation to Nicola, if he has done so?
In my headcanon, Mal told almost all of Barbers about it because Nicola was with grandparents yet at that moment. (And Wolfe with Sid did everything possible to make the scene less painful for everyone.) Nicola was told later, by Florrie, I guess.
Mal's explanation: She stepped through, like, a magic door mate (okay that's not the right accent but whatever)
And here’s another thing - Ben knows that Captain Barber knows who the witch is and that he doesn’t need to tell her anything on that subject. But Eliza doesn’t.
Ah, so that's the client Sid mentioned! I thought it was Eliza, but it looks like she was an unexpected walk-in.
Ben, Sid will not be happy if you chase the client away.
To be fair, I suspect Sid will not be happy regardless.
I doubt if Sid has been happy since Mal told him Harry disappeared through a magickal door.
That is what I was obliquely referencing, yes.
What wight through yonder doorway peeps?
I retract my previous sta... you get the idea 😁
As I said yesterday, I predict that they will either kill or marry each other. Not betting either way, personally. :P
Don't think they can marry.
Unless Eliza had some magickal "work" done when she changed her name and clothing choices...
What does that have to do with getting married?
Eliza marrying Ben has only been legal in our world for a few years.
Maybe so, but this isn’t our world, so the laws aren’t necessarily the same.
Well Eliza, you'll have to pick up this line of questioning later on... maybe over dinner? Ben probably knows some good places ^_^
Hmm, at first I thought Ben would hire Eliza to find O'Malley, now I believe the two of them might end up working this gentleman's case (Though both are good ^^)
Ben: There's nothing about the Witch's identity that I know that Captain Barber doesn't know.
Eliza: Ha! I knew it, that means the witch must be a Barber.
Ben: Snort
Oh yes PLEASE misunderstand this way.
I guess my allegiance is to older cast members, because I'm down for Eliza to get strung along and outwitted for the whole chapter.
Why Ben is so delighted of bickering with Eliza?
Maybe, misses his bickering with Mal, among other things?
Absolutely. Ben's been stressed out from Mal's disappearance and needed someone to yell at to relieve his feelings, and Eliza gave him just the perfect opportunity!
I think he's also enjoying the intellectual stimulation of matching wits with someone just as quick as he is.
Check TVTropes under "Heterosexual Life Partners".
[I think that's the page title...}
ben and eliza have been in a room now for less than five minutes and their dynamic is already iconic
2 of the biggest drama queens in an already highly dramatic cast, this was always going to be fun!
If someone showed me the fourth panel, without speech bubbles and out of context, I would assume a kiss was about to take place. It's amazing how dynamic this page looks. It's just two people talking, but the way it's drawn and presented makes it look incredibly dramatic. A shame they got interrupted.
"without speech bubbles and out of context"... Their expressions are a bit too defiant for being about to kiss. More like "Come at me." I would think they're about to challenge each other to arm wrestling XD
Okay, but add some rose petals and a couple of lensflares, maybe wash out the colors a bit...
Arm wrestling with added rose petals does sound like a pretty good idea...
I see your arm wrestling and raise you lip wrestling, hah!
I'll admit I was operating under the assumption that they were both gay (which is just my default, honestly) but this is definitely a ship I can get behind!
When's the wedding?
Wow so suprised
I sense an unwilling partnership in order to temporarily bounty hunt.
An initially unwilling partnership
Allee same-same Sid and Harry?
I love the fact that their literally circling eachother as they debate. Neither of them has the self control to sit still when there's interrogating to be done.
As soon as they start to insult each other (mild insults...like shrew, foozler, etc.) then you know an imminent kiss is incoming.
Oh, they're getting along so well. What good friends.
That guy interrupted them before they could get to the deduction equivalent of "I am not left-handed!"
"Get used to disappointment."
These two are precious.
I did not know I wanted a Ben and Eliza adventure until just now...and now I want nothing more.
I am inordinately amused that Eliza is doing all this secret squirrel stuff to find out who the Witch of Widdershins is when her new boss could straight up tell her.
Also: Noooo I've caught up. Thus end my Widdershins re-binge 😭
Poor guy.
He came here to see Harry.
He's going to GET Ben AND Eliza...
Ouch.
“Who is the witch of Widdershins?”
“You are!”
“What?”
“Oh, you said witch. Sorry, I mis-heard you.”
"She got the which of the what-she-did..."?
Took me a minute to realize that wasn't a The Prisoner reference.
It's delicious, it's delightful, it's delovely.....